Sandwich Bags

Problemdefinition

Your client is a very small consumer packaging company. One of their product lines is plastic bags that are designed to store food. They currently have one production machine dedicated to this product.

Since product demand currently exceeds your client’s productioncapacity, they want you to answer two key questions:

1. How can they best utilize their current bag capacity?

2. Should they invest in a new bag machine?

Kommentare

Since this is an interviewer-led case, the interviewer should guide through the interview.

The case is split into three parts.

In the first part, the interviewee needs to evaluate existing products and machine capacity. The interviewee should calculate the client’s most profitable product mix, keeping production capacity in mind.

The second part is directed towards answering the second key question of investment in a new bag machine. The interviewee must ask for more data and answer this part mostly qualitatively.

The third part is optional. It is an extension of the case based on a possible recommendation from the second part. The interviewee must calculate the amount of profit that the new product must generate in order to justify investing in a new machine. The interviewee should also sketch and interpret the elasticity curve.

The questions in the big boxes should be read aloud to the interviewee.

The interviewee should realize that if the new roller is able to meet the currently-unmet demand for 12 bags, our client’s profit would be $600K in 5 years.

Profit over 5 years

= Annual profit from 12" bags * 5 yrs = $120,000 * 5 = $600,000

However, the client must pay for the roller within 5 years. There is a profitshortfall of $150K.

Unrecovered investment

= Profit over 5 yrs - Cost of new roller = $600,000 - $750,000

= $150,000

At the current demand level, 2,000 machine production hours will NOT be used.

Annual unused capacity of new roller

= Machine run time - Capacity needed to meet 12" bags demand

= 5,000 - 3,000 hrs = 2,000 hrs

3. Why might it be a good idea to invest in a new machine?

Possible answers:

The demand growth rate could exceed 2%

Since the current market is mature, we could introduce a new product

We can rent out surplus machine production hours to increase revenue

Prices must increase to increase revenue

III. New Product

4. If we were to produce a new bag, what annual profit is required in order to justify investing in a new roller?

Situation:

The client’s R&D team has just come out with a newbag. It’s a 2-in-1 bag, one side holds your sandwich and the other side holds your chips or lettuce to keep things from getting soggy. This bag is 6”.

Information to be shared if inquired by the interviewee:

There is no lag time between production and market acceptance.

Unrecovered investment from new roller = $150K

Payback period = 5 years

Additional profit needed

Possible ways to gain $30,000 per year in profit from a new product:

$0.03 profit per bag at 1M bags

$0.015profit per bag at 2M bags

$0.01 profit per bag at 3M bags

If the interviewee does NOT suggest combinations, ask them to suggest a profit per bag and the corresponding salesvolume required.

5. Draw the graph that represents the different profit/quantity combinations that would justify an investment in a new roller. Does this curve have any end points for our client given that the new machine will produce 6” bags @ 4 bags per bag-width for 2000 hours per year?

Share Diagram 3 with the interviewee.

Key Insights

Yes, there are two end points:

The lower limit of demand depends on price sensitivity. A higherprofit margin such as $1 per bag is not feasible as production quantities wouldn’t be worth it.

The maximum demand we can serve depends on our productioncapacity. With the new roller, we can produce up to 4M of the new type of bag every year.

Bags made per hr

Unused capacity = 2,000 hrs per year

Maximum production level

IV. Conclusion

At the end of the case, the interviewee should come to the following conclusions:

The client can best utilize their current capacity by producing 4” and 8”bags on the roller because the combined profitability from this product mix is highest at $270K per year.

The client should NOT invest in a new bag machine because they cannot pay for the machine within 5 years. (They will still owe $150K.)

However, investment in a new machine may make sense if we are able to meet the annual demand of 12” bags and find a way to monetize the machine’s surplus capacity.

Schwierige Fragen

If we introduce a new product, what risks should we take into account?

Possible answer:

The new product may cannibalize the sales of our existingproducts. Thus, it may be harder to achieve the profitrequired to pay for the new machine within 5 years.

Since the machine produces two different kinds of products, there may be higheroperations and maintenance costs.

More questions to be added by you, interviewer!

At the end of the case, you will have the opportunity to suggest challenging questions about this case (to be asked for instance if the next interviewees solve the case very fast).

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